Saint Begu (died 31 October 690) was a nun and later became a

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

from

Hackness Hackness is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of the county of North Yorkshire, England. It lies within the North York Moors National Park. The parish population rose from 125 in the 2001 UK census to 221 in the 2011 UK cens ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

( Deira).Farmer, David (1992).''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' Oxford. p.44. She served at the monastic cell in the nunnery of Hackness, near

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

which was built by St Hilda of Whitby shortly before her death. Begu was the woman who claimed to have witnessed Hilda's soul being borne to heaven by angels when Hilda died on 17 November 680. Tradition states that at the moment of Hilda's passing, the bells tolled. Begu awoke to find her fellow sisters in the dormitory sleeping; it is then that Begu stated she witnessed the vision of the roof of the house opening and Hilda's soul been borne into heaven. The nuns awakened and prayed for the soul of the blessed abbess until, at dawn, some monks arrived to tell them of her death. Years after the death of Begu herself, the monks of Whitby Abbey were seeking

holy relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s to replace those of Hilda in 1125, as they were transferred to Glastonbury Abbey due to the 10th century

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

raids. Through a supposed revelation, a

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

was uncovered at Hackness where Begu had served; it bore the inscription ''Hoc est sepulchrum Begu'', the contents were transferred to nearby

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

where miracles were soon reported.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Begu 690 deaths Northumbrian saints Yorkshire saints 7th-century Christian saints Anglo-Saxon nuns Year of birth unknown Female saints of medieval England 7th-century English nuns Medieval English saints